Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is eyeing the exit at the Pentagon by the end of 2026, capping a months-long power struggle with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that has reshaped Army leadership.

Driscoll, a former venture capitalist and ally of Vice President Vance, has told people around him that 23 to 24 months is the expected lifetime of an Army secretary in the Trump administration, The Hill reported. His departure has not been formally announced, but multiple sources familiar with the discussions described it as a voluntary exit rather than a firing. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on Driscoll's expected departure.

The friction between Driscoll and Hegseth has been building for months, and it has already cost the Army its top uniformed leader. Hegseth ousted Gen. Randy George from his post as Army chief of staff in early April, a move that severed a close working relationship George had built with Driscoll around an ambitious modernization agenda.

Hegseth fired generals he saw as loyal to a rival

The general purge went beyond George. The New York Post reported that Hegseth fired George and two other generals in part to target officers perceived as close to Driscoll, whom Hegseth viewed as a top contender to replace him as defense secretary. A source close to the Trump administration told the Post that Hegseth "is very concerned about being fired and he knows that Driscoll is one of the top contenders to succeed him."

A current or former administration official put it more bluntly to the same outlet:

"This is all driven by the insecurity and paranoia that Pete has developed since Signalgate."

The White House, for its part, told Hegseth he could not fire Driscoll, who enjoys the protection of Vice President Vance, described as a close personal friend. Hegseth's spokesman, Sean Parnell, has been floated as a potential replacement for Driscoll if the Army secretary were ultimately removed.

That dynamic, a defense secretary who cannot remove a subordinate he views as a threat, and a subordinate who cannot fully execute his agenda because his boss keeps dismantling his team, goes a long way toward explaining why Driscoll is heading for the door.

A modernization push now missing its champion

Driscoll's tenure was not idle. He and Gen. George rolled out what they called the Army Transformation Initiative, a program focused on three priorities: delivering critical warfighting capabilities, optimizing force structure, and eliminating waste and obsolete programs. Among its key efforts was integrating drones and artificial intelligence into Army formations, lessons drawn directly from watching Ukrainian forces use commercial technology against Russia.

Driscoll pushed the service branch to improve living conditions for troops, modernize equipment, and learn from the Russia-Ukraine war. One source familiar with his approach said Driscoll had been "aggressive" in getting buy-in from general officers to drive those efforts forward, given his limited time in the role.

A battalion within the 173rd Airborne Brigade had been studying and incorporating lessons from overseas conflicts, including the use of unmanned systems in the Russia-Ukraine war. Gen. Chris Donahue, the former commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, backed that unit's work. But the Army is now planning to phase it out, a decision reported the same week as Driscoll's expected departure.

Hegseth's own tenure has drawn scrutiny from multiple directions. Democrats have openly discussed impeaching him if they win the midterms, a sign of how politically charged the defense secretary's position has become.

Driscoll's replacement at the top of the Army is already contested

After George's removal, President Trump and Hegseth installed Gen. Christopher LaNeve, a former military aide to Hegseth, as acting Army chief of staff. LaNeve has met with senators in recent months, but his confirmation faces objections from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The specific nature of those objections has not been publicly detailed.

The choice of LaNeve underscored the internal tension. Hegseth reached for a loyalist to fill the vacancy he created by removing Driscoll's closest uniformed partner. That left Driscoll working alongside a new Army chief who owed his position to the man Driscoll had been clashing with for months.

Meanwhile, Hegseth's own political ambitions have fueled speculation about his future. His recent Iowa swing drew attention from those watching the 2028 presidential landscape, raising questions about whether his focus is on running the Pentagon or running for higher office.

Trump handed Driscoll a diplomatic role that deepened the rift

The friction between the two men intensified late last year when President Trump picked Driscoll, not Hegseth, to negotiate with Ukrainian officials in hopes of ending the Russia-Ukraine war. That assignment elevated Driscoll well beyond the traditional lane of an Army secretary and placed him in a diplomatic role that would normally fall to the defense secretary or the State Department.

For Hegseth, the move appeared to confirm his fear that Driscoll was being groomed as a successor. For Driscoll, it was a vote of confidence from the president that came with a cost: deeper hostility from the man who controlled much of the Pentagon's daily operations.

Driscoll's spokesperson declined to comment on the expected departure. No formal timeline has been set, and unnamed sources cautioned that the end-of-year target is an approximation rather than a fixed date.

Hegseth has also faced questions about his own policy consistency. He reversed course on planned European troop reductions before a Brussels announcement earlier this year, a move that drew attention to the gap between internal Pentagon planning and public messaging.

What Driscoll's exit means for the Army's direction

Driscoll won Senate confirmation on February 25 of last year with a bipartisan 66-to-28 vote, a margin that reflected broad confidence in his ability to lead the service branch. Whether that confidence was justified depends on which side of the Driscoll-Hegseth divide one stands on.

Supporters point to the Transformation Initiative, the drone and AI integration work, and Driscoll's willingness to learn from the Ukraine battlefield. Critics, or at least those aligned with Hegseth, appear to view Driscoll as a political threat who built his own power base inside the Army at the defense secretary's expense.

The open questions are significant. No one has publicly explained what happens to the Transformation Initiative after Driscoll leaves. The phasing out of the 173rd Airborne's war-lessons battalion suggests the answer may not be encouraging. And with LaNeve's confirmation uncertain, the Army could enter 2027 without a confirmed secretary or a confirmed chief of staff.

Broader 2028 presidential speculation continues to swirl around multiple figures in the administration, adding another layer of political calculation to personnel decisions that should be driven by readiness and results.

When the Pentagon's leadership fights are louder than its warfighting reforms, the people who pay the price are the troops waiting on better equipment, better housing, and a clearer mission, not the principals jockeying for position.